07/08/2026
Congratulations to Gage County for receiving a $22.7 Million BUILD grant!
The Clatonia-DeWitt Road and three bridge replacements have officially been awarded $22.7 million through the USDOT BUILD Grant Program! The project will reconstruct approximately 8 miles of Clatonia-DeWitt Road into two 12-foot concrete lanes with 4-foot earth shoulders and all 3 bridges. We requested $23.7 million, so Gage County will contribute the remaining $1 million (just a 4.2% local match) to complete the project.
This is the largest competitive federal grant Gage County has ever received!
The bridge south of Clatonia is nearing the point where replacement would have become unavoidable. Replacing that bridge alone would have cost nearly $3 million. Instead, with just a $1 million local contribution, Gage County will replace three bridges and reconstruct eight miles of roadway—about 1/3 of what it would have cost the County to replace that single bridge on its own. That's an incredible return on investment for the taxpayers of Gage County.
This award was truly a team effort. Thank you to the volunteers who helped host our community outreach meetings and to everyone who attended, asked questions, and shared their thoughts. Your participation strengthened our application and showed just how important this project is to our communities.
I also want to express my sincere appreciation to Senator Pete Ricketts, Senator Deb Fischer, Congressman Adrian Smith, and their staff for their unwavering support throughout this process. They submitted letters of support year after year and continually advocated for this project. Senator Ricketts even took the time to come out and see the project firsthand. That level of engagement means a lot to a rural county like ours and speaks volumes about the commitment our federal delegation has to Nebraska communities. I can't express enough how much their support means to Gage County. Their willingness to stand alongside us and help move this project forward truly made a difference.
A special thank you also goes to the NDOT Infrastructure Hub for their partnership throughout the last two years of this three-year effort. They provided invaluable guidance as we revised, strengthened, and refined the application through each application cycle. Their expertise and commitment played an important role in helping us get across the finish line.
Projects like this don't happen overnight. They take persistence, partnerships, and a lot of hard work. This grant is proof that when local communities, state partners, and our federal delegation work together toward a common goal, we can accomplish great things for rural Nebraska and our future generations.
